A first-person view drone zeroes in on Canada's Jessica Linton during the women's moguls qualification on Tuesday in Livigno, Italy at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.Dylan Martinez/Reuters
By chasing skiers down mountains and zooming after sliding athletes through icy chutes, first-person view drones are delivering astonishing views of the action at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
These tiny agile drones, deployed by the Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), follow an athlete down the field of play at high speeds. The FPV drones have already provided some of the most immersive video footage of the Games in northern Italy, including alpine skiing, snowboard big air and luge.
Drones debuted in Olympic broadcasting at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, with their use and capabilities growing at each Games since. At the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, FPV drones were introduced into live mountain bike coverage, offering a captivating vantage point for viewers. But Milan Cortina is their Winter Games debut, with up to 15 FPV drones deployed across the venues, in addition to traditional drones.
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CBC is carrying OBS feeds on CBC Gem, so Canadian viewers get to see the drone footage.
“As sport evolves, the expectation is to have this kind of experience when consuming a sporting event,” said International Olympic Committee sports director Pierre Ducrey on Sunday.
“We believe the use of drones doesn’t significantly impact the experience of any athlete. Some are more sensitive than others, but we don’t think it affects athletes’ performance.”
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At Cortina Sliding Centre, plenty of Canadian athletes have already trained and competed with the FPV drones chasing. On TV, the tiny drone can periodically be spotted against the white icy track and looks like a little spider following along. The athletes say their international sporting federations first used them in test events or in training and consulted the federations about it.
“You can kind of hear it, but not really. It’s not that distracting,” said Canadian Trinity Ellis, who had an FPV drone following her while she raced in the women’s Olympic luge competition, sliding feet first down the track. “They have run it quite a bit in training, and when we were here for the test event. So we’ve been able to get used to it.”
Canadian bobsleigh coach Justin Kripps said he’s accustomed to seeing drones providing aerial footage, but these chase drones are new. He was amazed at how expertly the drone pilots can fly them inside the track without impacting the bobsledders. He said with their helmets on dampening the noise, and so much going on during a race, his athletes don’t notice the buzzing.
Skeleton racer Amelia Coltman of Team Great Britain hits the track on Wednesday with a drone in pursuit.Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
“The drone pilots are obviously pretty good at it, because it’s a relatively tight spot to fly through on the bobsled track,” said Kripps. “It provides a great perspective. And in a sport like ours, we’re always open to and looking for ways to make it more exciting for viewers and get more people watching. So I think it’s great.”
Next door at the women’s alpine venue in Cortina, the FPV drones are trailing skiers down the mountain.
“I don’t notice them ever while skiing,” said Canadian alpine ski racer Britt Richardson. “But they make for cool TV clips.”
Drones are being used in the coverage of all alpine events but Richardson is a technical skier, specialized in giant slalom, and she says the drones offer more unique perspective for the speed events – the downhill and super-G – where they show accurate line choice and jumps.
While some athletes don’t hear the distinctive buzz of the drones, the noise can be heard on many broadcasts. Some viewers at home find it annoying, while others call it a reasonable trade-off to see compelling footage from a high-tech camera that’s literally flying inside the action. It has sparked debate on some social media platforms.
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“The drone footage of the DH was also amazing. Hate hate hate the noise, and drones in general, but the footage was unreal,” wrote one Reddit user.
“I kind of miss the chatter of the skis on the downhill, the swarm of bees covers it up. It’s a little Blair Witch camera sometimes but the athlete’s POV is interesting,” wrote another.
Not every athlete loves the drones either.
“It depends on who’s flying them,” said U.S. snowboarder Bea Kim, who does halfpipe. “Sometimes they get too close to people, because the people flying them don’t realize how close they are.”
A drone operator captures video ahead of an alpine ski, men's super-G race on Wednesday in Bormio, Italy.Gabriele Facciotti/The Associated Press
Others feel it’s not the ideal way to showcase their specific discipline.
“The drones don’t bother me. I’m just not the biggest fan of the angle of showing snowboarding,” said New Zealand snowboarder Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who took silver for New Zealand in Big Air. “The bird’s eye view of our tricks isn’t the best or coolest way to see what we’re doing.”
While the OBS declined requests from The Globe and Mail to interview drone operators, they provided a media guide that contains a profile of a former Norwegian national team ski jumper who has since started a production company and is piloting an FPV drone at ski jumping. Putting his vast experience in the sport to use behind the camera, Jonas Sandell described what he wants viewers to feel:
“What it’s actually like to fly. How fast, intense, and extreme ski jumping really is,” said Sandell in the OBS profile. “Seeing an athlete soar 140 metres through the air on two skis is incredible. I want audiences to experience that sensation as if they were in the air too.”
With files from Eric Reguly in Livigno, Italy